jeditait

Finally found my camera, no more taking pics with my iPhone. Got some good shots

The dominant male(pic 1) can be very aggressive however i find its mostly towards the females. He hardly ever bugs the other male (pic 2). I find the most aggressive fish I have are my Male Red Zebra(pic 3), a male socolofi(pic 4) and my unknown(pic 5). I want to add more fish, i have started a list from Spencer Jacks, mostly Peacocks. Hopefully the added fish will reduce some of the aggression in the tank. (pics are fuzzy, sorry im not a great photographer)

And she's holding

Did a water change, added Prime, will test again tomorrow see where im sitting. Should I add something like stability to the tank for this first week? Also i noticed today that I have a OB Zebra holding and i just watched my Auratus mate...Im assuming this is all a very good sign Thanks everyone for your comments and help through this setup.

Thanks I just did a water test, pH 8.2, Ammonia 0.25ppm, Nitrite 0.5ppm and Nitrate 40ppm. Nitrate seems higher than I expected could this be from using Prime on initial setup?

As promised here are more pics

Some early morning pics of the tank, iPhone isn't the greatest I'll take some real pics with a real camera and post them later on today.

Ok so the build is done...A few runs to Home Depot to get more PVC pipe, a couple runs to Big Als to get substrate and now I can sit back to enjoy I'll post some pics tomorrow once the tank has cleared up, still a little cloudy from the new substrate.

Sure, I would love to Tank is 72" l x 30" w x 24" h. One corner overflow with a 1 1/2" drain and a 1" emergency drain. Sump is 58" l x 24" w x 18" h, drain flows in a trickle filter. 1st tray is sponge and plastic scrubbers, 2nd tray is all my current matrix bio media, last compartment is hydro balls. Picture attached. Then the water flows under through more sponge to my chemicals, matrix carbon, phosgaurd and purigen. Filter floss tops that off. Then water will overflow into a refugium, there's more hydro balls as substrate (which I'm currently trying to figure out how to make it sit on the bottom)... Then out over under and back to the tank via a 1800GPH mag drive pump, 2 3/4" returns drilled on back of tank.

All cichlids I'm transferring from my current 120 into this. List below, but I want to find more peacocks to stock the tank with 6 Metriaclima zebra (OB Zebra) 4 Metriaclima estherae (Red Zebra) 4 Labidochromis caeruleus (Electric Yellow) 3 Metriaclima callainos (Cobalt Blue) 4 Hemichromis Bimaculatus (Red Jewel) 4 Melanochromis Auratus (Malawi Golden) 3 Pseudotropheus demasoni (Blue Demasoni) 1 Yellow Zebra 1 Unknown (looks like a Zebra but hes black with faint light stripes and yellow tipped fins) 2 Aulonocara sp (Red Peacock) 3 Aulonocara nyassae var. (OB Peacock) 2 Yellow Peacocks.

I got my new tank last night and wanted to capture the build process somewhere. I'll try and post pics throughout the day as I get the build done.

Excellent idea, would this work as well fully submerged or should I be using this stuff In the second drip tray?

OK so after some research online and pondering this for a day i've decided to build a trickle filter on the left hand side of the tank. I've attached screenshots of the idea i have, i decided i should sketch this out before i start working on it Now im wondering if I should rethink my media selection. Ill have 5 areas where I can place media; the top 'tray' where my overflow comes into the tank, ill stick with filter floss and sponges, the second 'tray' i would put my Matrix into but then on the bottom i have 2 fairly large spaces to fill up (8.5"x 11"x 11.5"). Filling these spaces with Matrix or Bio balls would be very expensive and i'm not sure if thats an ideal setup. The last section, before it overflows into the refugium, is where i intend on putting my carbon and purigen. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Ok so i got my sump tank last night, this was a pre-built sump (pics above), I didn't realize that the three glass pieces were so close together, i cant even get my hands in between them. I'm trying to figure out how to configure the sump; my plan was to use filter floss/sponges/phosphate removal pad at the initial stage, then seachem matrix (I'm going to re-use the media from my current tanks), carbon and finally Purigen. I would love to hear some ideas and suggestions on how to accomplish this within this sump Thanks!

Very well done! I'm gonna stick with the one internal overflow, I'm planning on building a cabinet around the tank and stand once I get it all setup and don't want to have to worry about building around an external overflow. Thanks everyone for the replies!

I hadn't considered the cleaning process for those yet. Thanks

Looking for some opinions on my new tank being built by Concept Aquatics. Tank is 72"x30"24"; currently I have one overflow in a corner with two holes being plumbed to go to a sump tank. A friend is suggesting that I get another overflow in the other corner. Is it beneficial to have 2 overflows in the corners, or keep the one overflow? One other suggestion concept had was to have an overflow in the middle with the returns on the back corners. This will be a cichlid tank, I'm going to move all my current fish from my 120G to the new tank once it's built and setup. I also want to move all my plants from my current 20G into this tank. Edit: Attached pictures & changed title

Thanks!! The demasoni and auratus got quite a few so I finally took em out, still figure there's 50 ish in there. Growing quite nicely too Am I safe to put a pleco in the tank or a synodontis??

What a great surprise this evening, came down to feed and looked into the tank and low and behold a ton of fry. Momma and Poppa on guard being such diligent protectors In the tank i have a juvenile demasoni and 3 juvenile (2 months old) auratus, they seem to be hiding among the rocks and drift wood wondering if I NEED to take them out. I dont want to upset anything.

Sorry for the late response, thanks Jayba, her belly isnt as big anymore just seemed to get smaller on its own over the last few days. There are 7 Jewels in the tank, and I think 2 of them are males Hoping one of these days to get them to breed.

Eating yes, she currently has waste hanging from her anus (so that's a yes) and not lethargic. I have noticed her hanging out around the rocks, but she comes out whenever I feed or if I get close to the tank and just watch the fish.

Need some help, does this Jewel have bloat or is she (??) holding eggs??

Awesome! Thanks for the feedback. I guess I should have started with what I am looking for overall in my filter I have a 120 gallon tank with about 30 ish cichlids, some plecos, 4 red fin sharks, 2 clown loaches and some white cloud minnows. I am probably way over stocked but I like the busy look in the tank and want media that will work the best for assisting in maintaining the tank. I have been doing at minimum 20% water changes since I got the tank 8ish weeks ago and test the water regularly. As I said above I do find that I have lots of little particles floating about my tank. I was hoping the combo of carbon and purigen would help to clear that up. I will definitely go with the matrix and purigen and then load up the remaining baskets with floss Thanks for the responses!

One of the staff at Riverfront suggested using carbon to keep my water nice and clear, on the seachem site they say (of course) that purigen will make your water "Crystal Clear" :eh: . I have some very small particles all throughout the tank and figured if Carbon and Purigen can help to clear that up then its worth a shot :thumbs: . Any reason you dont use Carbon? What else do you use in your canisters??

I am thinking about switching out the media in my Penn Plax Cascade 1500 and using all Seachem products. 2 Trays of matrix, 2 trays of matrix carbon and one tray of purigen. Has anyone used these products? And any advice on what process I should use to swap over to them?? Thanks!